One supplier told Utility Week that the market-wide cost of delivering Eco could “be in excess of £2 billion per year”, with the prices for installing the energy efficiency measures likely to ramp up as the scheme progresses.
The supplier claimed this could add up to an average of £83 per year to consumers’ energy bills.
This is significantly higher than figures published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) this week, predicting an annual market-wide average cost of £1.336 billion per year for the scheme designed to help those on low incomes cut their energy costs.
Decc has based its estimate on figures provided by the major energy companies. The Decc estimate would see an average of £47 per annum added to consumer bills to fund Eco, although Decc acknowledged “future costs may go up or down”.
Both British Gas and SSE, which partly blamed their recent bill increases of 9.2 per cent and 8.2 per cent respectively on meeting government obligations, both repeated their call for Decc to extend the Eco deadline, saying that would cut costs.
Npower has abandoned its call for a £1.3 billion spending cap on Eco, asking instead that Decc publishes monthly delivery costs that can be tracked, and “appropriate action” taken if they increase.
A Decc spokesman said the costs of Eco are “broadly in line with the costs of previous schemes (Cert and Cesp).
“This means there should be no need for any increase to consumer bills.”
Decc also said they are not currently considering extending the deadline for Eco delivery.